WEST
“Where the hell have you been all my life?” The question leaves my mouth in a plume of smoke, speaking to the joint pinched between my fingers.
I pass it to Dane, and I swear it’s been a lifetime since any of us took a hit. We have until early summer to get our fill before we’re in the gym for our first college football season. But getting high tonight feels necessary, because life’s so incredibly fucked up at the moment.
I glance down at my phone, checking the app linked to Southside’s security system. The moment I lay eyes on the thing, it switches from ‘disarmed’ to ‘armed’. It seems like a weird coincidence since she’d already turned it on when Scar’s party ended a little more than an hour ago.
West: Everything okay? Just noticed the alarm was off.
Southside: All good. Ricky stopped by and I gave him the phone. On my way to bed.
I smile and can’t resist the chance to get under her skin a little.
West: On your way to bed alone, right? Or is Ruiz still there?
Southside: Ha-ha. Such a fucking comedian.
Despite the sarcastic response, I know she’s laughing.
West: I’d hate to have to kill anyone tonight.
Southside: Not tonight, but if you keep talking…
West: I’ve got it on good authority your ass isn’t going any-damn-where.
Southside: Oh, yeah? That’s what you heard?
West: True shit. Rumor is, you stick around for the good sex.
Southside: OMG whatever.
West: It’s like that?
Southside:…
West: Fine. Night. Love you.
She takes her sweet-ass time responding, which I know is one-hundred percent intentional.
Southside: Love you back 😉 Also, Jules is stuck here in the city for Christmas, so if you want to buy the plane tickets, it’s just me and Scar.
“Get off the damn phone. You’re messing up the rotation,” Sterling complains, shaking the joint at me.
I take another hit, then hand it off to Dane. Right after, I open the app where I’ve had our plane tickets sitting in the cart and pull the trigger on them before I forget.
“You dickheads owe me for your tickets. Joss’s too. No such thing as a free ride,” I announce, letting my head drop back to the mattress.
“Fuck you,” Dane chokes out, making me laugh as he tries to hold in the smoke he just inhaled.
Mentioning Joss’s name with the joke has me thinking about her now, wondering how she’s dealing with the shitstorm X brought into her life last night. With what’s been revealed about her dad, things are kind of a mess over there.
The last twenty-four-hours under her roof have been nothing but chaos—lots of fighting and crying. Most of which Joss has been able to avoid, but of course she’s not completely exempt. We offered to let her chill here for a few days, as a means of escape, but she insisted on being at home. Apparently, she doesn’t trust her folks to be forthcoming with the details, so she’s sticking around to hear it all firsthand.
With all the underhanded shit going on lately, I honestly don’t blame her.
I thought the shift in circumstances might change her mind about coming to Louisiana in a week, but it’s actually had the opposite effect. Her original plan was to sneak out and leave her parents a note explaining where she’d gone, but now she wants to just be straight up with them. Apparently, she doesn’t give a fuck what they think about her leaving with us.
Or more specifically, leaving with Dane.
The room’s quiet and the weed has me reflecting on other things now.
“As far as fifteen-year-old girls birthday parties go, I’d say that was a success.”
Sterling nods, agreeing with me. “She seems like a good kid. Southside’s done a good job with her.”
It’s strange at first hearing him say it that way, but he isn’t wrong—she raised Scar on her own. Even when it wasn’t just the two of them.
“Parents fucking suck,” Dane chokes out.
The incredibly general statement has me laughing, but probably only because I’m high as hell right now.
“Speaking of parents that suck, Joss doing okay?” Sterling asks.
Dane shrugs and inhales deep, holding his breath before answering. “She will be.”
As if Pandora’s prying ass wasn’t bad enough, we’re stuck with X until she regains control of her account. Turns out, she wasn’t as heartless as we all thought, having held back all the gems X has graced us with lately. Some are pretty heavy hitters, the kind of shit that can tear families apart. While Joss may be the latest victim, who the fuck knows who’s next.
I glance at the time and in rushes an impulsive thought.
“We should go upstairs,” I suggest. “Let’s rummage through Vin’s shit and see what we find.”
Both my brothers look at me like I’ve lost my fucking mind, but it’s the perfect night. Mom and Vin are at the same charity event they attend every year right before Christmas. And I’m not sure what goes on there, but they’ve never made it back in for the night before three a.m.
“We’ve got a couple hours at least,” I say with a groan, pulling myself up off the bed, still dressed in what I wore over to Southside’s.
“What exactly are we looking for?” Dane asks.
“Hell if I know. Just anything,” I reason with a shrug. “We’ll know when we find it.”
Honestly, it’s the weed talking and I have no fucking idea what I’m saying, but I’m convinced this is what we need to do with the rest of our night.
“Sterling, take the lobby. Dane, I need you on elevator watch.”
They look at each other like I’m crazy, and they might be right, but there’s no stopping me. I’m already out of my room, down the hall, and pressing the call button for the private elevator. As I ride it up to my parents’ floor alone, there’s a quiet voice in the back of my head telling me what a shit idea this is, but, like I said, high me is unstoppable. And not in the ‘valiant, heroic’ sort of way. More so in the ‘reckless abandon’ meaning of the word.
Yep, that’s me. My comic book name would be ‘Super Stupid’ or some shit.
The broad, metal doors part and I lay eyes on the polished marble tile of my parents’ foyer. The gleaming white reflects light from the chandelier above. They’ve left every light on, but that’s typical for them. Why conserve energy when you’ve got more money in your bank account than this whole city combined, right?
I step out, thinking I’m on some kind of recon mission, but it isn’t until I hear voices that I realize that assumption was dead-ass wrong. My gut tells me to get back on the elevator before they notice I’m here, but the tone and volume of their voices makes this seem more like an argument than a regular conversation. She’s screaming and, from what I can hear she’s also crying, but I can’t make out her words.
So, being your friendly neighborhood Super Stupid, I push forward in the name of justice, or… maybe it’s just blind stupidity.
“You’re saying so much, Vin, but none of it explains what I saw!” Mom yells.
“Pam, for the last time, tell me what the fuck you did with it. You have no fucking right to touch my things!”
I’m close enough now that I get a glimpse of my parents through the partially open door to my father’s study. It’s a mess—papers thrown everywhere, books all over the floor, every drawer and cabinet door open. Even the oil painting over the fireplace is pulled away from the wall. Behind it, the faint green glow of the digits on the safe can be seen. I have no clue what’s gone missing, but I do know Vin’s desperate to find it.
His hair’s wild and damp with sweat. The top button of his shirt and the bowtie around his neck are both undone. Mom’s still wearing a long, black formal gown, but the straps from her shoes are dangling from her fingers.
“Dammit, Pam! Tell me what you fucking did with it!” Vin shouts again, and with how my heart’s pounding in my chest, I nearly rush in there, but something tells me to wait.
So, I don’t dismiss that small voice in my head this time, choosing to stay put and listen.
“All those names and dollar amounts. I don’t… I don’t understand. Is it a prostitution ring?” Mom asks, unable to fight the strain I hear so clearly in her voice. “Is that what you’ve gotten yourself into? Because it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
She pauses then and presses a hand to her mouth when she gets choked up.
“No, none of it makes sense,” she corrects herself. “Because we’ve already got more cash than we could ever spend in a lifetime, so there’s no reason in the world I can think of that explains why you’d be doing what I think you’re doing.”
Vin slams his fist on the desk, and I swear the whole penthouse rattles.
“Always so fucking self-righteous,” he growls. “We weren’t all born with a silver spoon in our mouths!”
“Is that what this is about?” she scoffs. “You resent me because of where I come from? What my family has? Because last I checked, you benefited from their wealth, too.”
He balls his fist again, but this time stops just short of pounding the desk. Instead, he closes his eyes and tries to regain his composure.
“And did you ever stop to think that maybe I don’t want that hanging over my head anymore? That you’ve brought more to the damn table than I have?”
“I’ve never thrown that in your face,” Mom snaps. “You have more than done well for yourself, regardless of how and where you started. Which is why I don’t understand any of this.”
Staring at her, he lifts his hands when a simple answer falls from his mouth. “If there’s more to take, Pam, why not take it?” he reasons. “I’m building a legacy. An empire. Why create a limit when there isn’t one?”
Mom’s quiet, like she’s trying to process Vin’s words. “Shouldn’t there always be a limit, though? A line we’re not willing to cross just to add a few more zeros to our bank account?”
He stares at her with hellfire in his eyes, not saying a word, which says it all.
“Guess that answers my question,” Mom scoffs, staggering back a bit after having the wind knocked out of her.
Vin lowers his head and takes a deep breath. “That’s not what I meant. Of course, there are boundaries.”
Mom throws her hand up, clearly fed up with the course of this conversation.
“I knew the moment you got involved with your fucking family again it’d be our downfall.”
My brow tenses when she says those words, because I don’t understand what it means. I set my confusion aside for now, to listen closely and make sure I don’t miss anything.
“Pam, if you just return my ledger, I’d be glad to have a peaceful, civilized conversation with you about this, but the information you took was important and it’s also confidential. You could get me in deep shit if I don’t have it back in my hands immediately.”
She glares at him and I haven’t seen this side of her before. Maybe it just took her eyes being opened for her to come around.
“You’ll get your ledger when I get the truth.”
With that, she turns to leave, and I forgot to mention that being high also makes me slow. Which is why my reaction time is for shit right now and I’m caught.
She stops dead in her tracks, staring at me with mascara streaking down her face. I’m frozen there, unsure of what to do, unsure of whether I should explain why I was eavesdropping, but before I can even think of an excuse, she walks away.
Doesn’t speak. Doesn’t rat me out to Vin. Just walks away.
For a moment, I’m stunned by her reaction, but then I come to my senses and sprint back to the elevator, grateful I’m barefoot so my exit is silent.
I’ve got no idea what I just witnessed, but I now know there’s some sort of ledger and Vin’s just been bested by the woman he’s mistreated for years.
I’m not into that sort of thing, but karma’s definitely come back to bite him square in the ass.
Standing in the elevator, I pull out my phone and send a text.
West: We need to talk. Can you meet me tonight?
Ricky: The pier. Twenty minutes.
